"Well, as you know, I am not a blogger, although I play one on
television, but I wish you wouldn't let your 'stats' get in your way.
We know what we know about sisu," writes our imail correspondent, dismissing our withdrawal symptoms in the face of SiteMeter's much ballyhooed new design, debuted this morning to much consternation amongst the immediate blogosphere. Glenn Reynolds and Ann Althouse say it all:

Professor Reynolds: OH NO: They've ruined SiteMeter. I agree that they should make SiteMeter classic an option. Also, right now it's demanding a login, and I want open stats. Any recommendations for other free open counters?

Professor Althouse: I hate hate hate hate the new SiteMeter … It is ugly and unreadable. The statistics were once so clear and sharply presented, featuring the information that was most useful to the blogger. I was willing to pay $30 a month for the premium service. Now, premium service is only $6.95 a month, but I'll probably drop it, because I never want to lay eyes on that horrible website again … Everyone else hates it too.

"SNAP OUT OF IT, and just keep on keeping on with Truth, Justice and the American Way," advises our correspondent. Easy for her to say. Presumably the universal user disgust may help get this train back on track.

I far far prefer Stat Counter (statcounter.com) which I've used for about 3 years. I do have Site Meter, but the only reason I've kept it is because of the TTLB Ecosystem. I'm debating whether to continue with both or not. I never get any hits at all from the TTLB and I seldom look at my "ranking" so it doesn't seem worth it.

Plus Site Meter was (after the rollback) causing IE to crash on some blogs - mostly blogspot and Word Press run blogs.